Burros lose to Barstow in final match of the night 36-33

Friday

Dec 21, 2012 at 2:45 PMDec 21, 2012 at 2:50 PM

The Burros lost their dual meet on the very last match of the night.The Burroughs wrestling team lost 36-33 to Barstow Thursday in the Burroughs Barn, but the Burros took the Aztecs to their very limit.Barstow came up with the winning pin with 18 seconds left in the third period, which gave them six points. If Anthony Khoeun could have made it through those extra 18 seconds, the dual would have been tied at 33-all.Don't blame Khoeun though, he fought as hard as he possibly could to finish the match against a wrestler with a lot more experience.He scored two escape points and almost scored a two-point takedown that could have swung the deciding match completely in the Burros' favor.

Brad KesterDI Sports

RIDGECREST — The Burros lost their dual meet on the very last match of the night.The Burroughs wrestling team lost 36-33 to Barstow Thursday in the Burroughs Barn, but the Burros took the Aztecs to their very limit.Barstow came up with the winning pin with 18 seconds left in the third period, which gave them six points. If Anthony Khoeun could have made it through those extra 18 seconds, the dual would have been tied at 33-all.Don't blame Khoeun though, he fought as hard as he possibly could to finish the match against a wrestler with a lot more experience.He scored two escape points and almost scored a two-point takedown that could have swung the deciding match completely in the Burros' favor."Anthony came to us after summer," BHS Coach Tyrell Blanche said. "One of his high school goals was to get a letter, so he gave wrestling a try. I've got about seven guys in that weight class, but he's worked his way to being the top wrestler in that class. The kid was just relentless tonight. I couldn't ask for more from a kid with less than 10 varsity wrestling matches under his belt."Hopefully, he feels good about that. That was good and worth waking up in the morning ready to go again."The Burros weren't close to winning a dual meet a year ago, so Blanche sees thisl as progress in his program."We didn't come within 30 points of winning a dual meet last year, so to lose by three in front of the home crowd is a step in the right direction," Blanche said. "Hopefully, people start to catch on a little to what we're doing here."Khoeun and the wrestler who stepped on the mat before him, Isaac Perez, both had exciting matches. Perez went three overtimes, plus had to replay the third period in his tough, 8-6 win.Blanche said he thought Perez benefitted from the third-period replay because Perez is in excellent shape after a hard week of workouts up in the loft where the Burros hold practices."The wrong guy got the choice after some blood was found on the mat, so we had to redo the entire third period," Blanche said. "I thought that benefitted us because Isaac is in such great shape. It makes me feel good because it tells me that our team can go the distance."Perez, in the second of the two third periods, was down 6-4 with time ticking down under 20 seconds, but came up with a huge two-point takedown to push the match into overtime.Perez stopped a takedown opportunity in the first overtime, didn't let his Barstow opponent score an escape point in the second overtime then won the match with a reversal in the third overtime to get the win."I love that," Blanche said. "It looked like it was a walk in the park. He never got tired. We've been really intense with our workouts over the last week. For the last 10 days of practice, we've been going extremely hard and that's what we do it for."The last four wrestlers for Burroughs — Aaron Patin, Jake Farris, Perez and Khoeun — did their best to get the Burros a win, or at very least, a tie.Farris, who wrestled at 126 pounds, gave up an early two-point takedown then gave up only one escape point in the rest of his match on his way to winning 8-3.Patin wrestled after Farris in the 132-pound class. Patin jumped out to a 4-1 lead by the end of the first period, then got a pin to win the match with 43 seconds remaining in the second period, which tied the dual at 30-all.Perez was next and gave the Burros a slim 33-30 lead, but Barstow's Gabe Rodriguez got the most crucial pin of the match to give the Aztecs the win."Burroughs isn't a traditional dual-winning team, so to lose by three the way we did, feels like things are moving in the right direction," Blanche said. "We performed well enough to bring everyone back to practice ready to make sure that scenario doesn't happen again."Adan Pena won the opening match of the day 6-4 by getting a take down in each of the three periods. Ethan Haddock pinned his man in 1 minute and 35 seconds. Isaiah Ramon and Khaleel Snook both had wins because Barstow had open 195-pound and 220-pound classes to round out the team's scoring on the night.